Then she sank down to the bottom of a big lake, and when she came up
again out of the water she brought in her hands two charms, which were
two slimy roots; one for the Sultan and one for the Wazir. And she said,
"Take these, and when you return home you will find that your wish has
already been accomplished; but to these charms I give you there are
conditions attached. When you arrive in your town, you must tell no man
about it, and take heed that in the way you neither chirrup nor look
back."
Then she shook her withered hand and said, "It has taken you three years
to come; you will return in one month. Farewell."
Then the Sultan and the Wazir set off home.
In the way the Wazir said, "Allah be praised that our wish has been
granted." The Sultan, forgetting the old woman's warning, chirruped, as
much as to say, "I will believe when I see."
After one month they came to the gate of their town, and as they entered
the cannons sounded and the news spread forth, "There is an heir in the
palace of the Sultan, and there is an heir in the house of the Wazir."
The Wazir returned to his house swiftly, and there he found a most
beautiful boy.
The Sultan came to the palace, and there he found a snake.
When he heard that the Wazir had a lovely child he was very pleased, and
he used to go every day to the Wazir's house to see that child, but he
told his people to throw that snake out of the palace.
Now there was a slave girl in the palace called Mizi, and when she saw
them taking that snake to throw it in the river she said, "Give me that
snake, that I may bring him up as my child."
So Mizi took that snake and wore him round her neck till he grew, and
then she came to the Sultan and said, "Build me a grass hut, that I may
live there with my child, the snake."
So a hut was built for her, and she stayed there by herself with that
snake. She took her cooking pots there, and cooked food for herself and
the snake. Every day she fed that snake, and it grew and grew, till at
last it filled up the whole hut.
Then that snake said to Mizi, "Go and tell the Sultan that his little
snake wants a stone house of seven storeys in which to live. He must
look for craftsmen who are not afraid, to come and build the house, and
what they ask must be given them."
So Mizi came and told those words to the Sultan, and craftsmen who had
no fear were sought for. They came and built a house of seven storeys in
the space of seven days, and the wages they asked for were given them.
When the house was finished, they said, "Go and tell the little snake
that the house is ready."
Then Mizi and the snake moved into that house and lived there. Till one
day the snake said to Mizi, "Go and look for a sage who will teach me
learning, but he must be master of his heart and unafraid. He must come
of his own free will."
So she went and sought a man of learning, but every one she asked to
come replied, "I am not going so as to be swallowed whole by that
snake."
At last she found a sage who said, "I will go, for I see that Mizi lives
with this snake and is not devoured, so why should I be eaten?"
So that professor came and taught the snake learning of every kind, and
when he had finished he went to the Sultan and received the pay he asked
for.
So the snake and Mizi lived together, till one day that snake said to
her, "Now you must go and look for a wife for me; but she must come of
her own free will, and what money she wants she must have."
So a wife for the snake was sought for in all the land, but none was
found; all said, "Who wants to go and be swallowed whole by a big
snake?"
Now in that country was a very poor man who had seven daughters. When
the news came to them all refused, till the seventh and youngest was
asked, and she replied, "We are very poor; I will go and be eaten by
that snake. What matter?"
So that girl was taken and decked out with pearls and precious stones
and clothes of silk, and then Mizi was called and told, "This is the
wife of your master, the snake. Take her."
So Mizi took her and brought her to the snake, and he said, "Arrange
everything for her comfort."
When night had come, Mizi slept with that girl till, when twelve o'clock
came, that snake came out from inside his skin. He put on wooden
sandals and went to the bathroom and made his ablutions. When he had
finished washing he took his prayer mat and spread it out and prayed and
read the Koran.
After that he came and sat near that girl and looked at her and said,
"My wife is beautiful; she has beautiful eyes, lovely ears and long
straight hair. Hhum! Poor me, who am a snake. Sleep, my beautiful wife."
Then he entered his skin again and slept.
Seven days passed in this way, and on the eighth Mizi said to that girl,
"I will fasten a thread to your thumb; when I pull it open your eyes and
look at him."
That night, at twelve o'clock, the snake came out of his skin, and then
Mizi pulled the thread and that girl awoke and opened her eyes and saw a
wondrously handsome Arab youth: in all that country there was no youth
so handsome as that son of the Sultan.
The snake went to the bathroom and made his ablutions, and then returned
and prayed and read the Koran.
At the time of the before dawn breezes he came and looked at his wife
and then returned to his skin. When dawn came Mizi and that girl took
counsel together, and then Mizi went to the Sultan and said to him,
"Give me three tins of oil and ten maunds of firewood."
When she had got them she had them brought to the house.
Then she said to that girl, "Now we must dig a pit here in the other
room."
So they dug a pit and put in it the firewood and then poured the oil
over it.
That night they watched till after midnight. When the youth went to the
bathroom they got up and seized on the skin and tried to drag it into
the pit, but it was too heavy for them. So they exerted all their
strength, till at last they managed to drag it into the pit. After that
they set fire to the wood and the oil.
When its owner in the bathroom heard the skin crackling he ran in and
said to Mizi, "What have you done, taking away my clothes to put in the
fire?" Then he fell down, and did not regain consciousness till three
o'clock next day, for that youth did not know the world outside of his
skin.
When he recovered Mizi cooked porridge for him, and when he had eaten
it he said to Mizi, "Go to the Sultan and tell him to make offerings,
nine shells full of alms; for the day after to-morrow I will go out."
So Mizi went with the news to the Sultan, but he replied, "Go back and
get eaten by that snake. We do not want any more of your folly; for you
have taken the poor man's daughter and brought her to the snake, and she
has already been swallowed up. Now you in your turn will be eaten, and
to-day, I suppose, you have come to take leave of us."